Candidates for Superintendent of. Public Instruction Tom Horne (left) and Kathy Hoffman take. questions at The Arizona Republic.|| Screenshot The Arizona Republic
Opinion: Kathy Hoffman narrowly lost her education superintendent seat. That should set off warning bells among Arizona Democrats: Don’t get cocky.
By Phil Boas ||Arizona Republic
Arizona Democrats will no doubt remember fondly what happened on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. Katie Hobbs took the governor’s seat. Mark Kelly secured his first full six-year term in the U.S. Senate and Adrian Fontes became the next secretary of state.
Across the board, the GOP’s MAGA candidates, the purveyors of Donald Trump national populism, fell like dominoes to the more mainstream Democrats.
But if the 2022 midterm was a study in the limitations of Trump Republicanism, its control study was the Arizona race for superintendent of public instruction.
This was a statewide race pitting a mainstream Democrat against a mainstream Republican. Donald Trump and Make America Great Again were not on the ballot.
It’s a race that should be a bright red flag and a warning to Democrats:
Don’t get cocky.
